


You Just Cat-tivated My Trap Card!

by Rikudera



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh!
Genre: Cat Puns, Cats, Fluff and Humor, Gemshipping, Gen, Hijinks & Shenanigans, Mild Language, Post-Series, Yamis have their own Body
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-19
Updated: 2017-11-19
Packaged: 2019-02-04 09:49:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,652
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12768429
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rikudera/pseuds/Rikudera
Summary: Ryou and the former Thief King adopt the best cat in the world. They take the cat on a walk. Nothing could possibly go wrong.





	You Just Cat-tivated My Trap Card!

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Corrosion](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Corrosion/gifts).



> Got the scar idea from all of frigidloki's adorable cat comics.

"Oh, Bakura-kun, you're back again," the shelter worker greets him warmly. "And you brought another friend."

"Yep," Ryou smiles back brightly. He really likes visiting this shelter, whether it's to help walk dogs if he wants some exercise, or just sit and hold something small and soft, if he needs more of a pick-me-up. Sometimes he'll bring Honda-kun or Malik-kun along with him, but he usually goes by himself.

"We wanna pet some animals," the guy trailing after Ryou says. He's nearly bouncing on the balls of his feet, and Ryou can hear him clicking a pair of d10s together in one of the pockets of his red hoodie. He mentioned faux-casually over breakfast this morning that he didn't want to just sit around at the apartment, and Ryou dragged him here in an effort to avoid either of them winding up in trouble. The initial shock of his return to Domino City about a month ago might have calmed, but Ryou doesn't want that calm to be a breeding ground for mischief.

"Just a minute," Ryou chides, turning to look back. His companion grins, not discouraged in the slightest. "We have to sign the conduct form first." He takes the pen from the worker and signs like he always does. He then hands the pen to his companion, who only takes his hands out of his pockets to scribble a name across the bottom of a second form. Then, they go right back to where they were before.

"Thank you," the worker says, "Bakura-kun and, uh..." He squints at the second scribble.

"Bakari Ishtar," the former Thief King says.

"Ishtar..." the worker trails off again.

"It's Egyptian."

"He's Malik-kun's cousin, who recently moved here," Ryou lies, smiling back at the worker. The worker seems to accept this.

"Alright then, Bakura-kun, Ishtar-kun. Please follow me." They walk through the shelter. "Who do you feel like seeing today? Dogs? Cats? Rabbits? Guinea pigs?"

"Cats," Bakari says emphatically. The worker nods and takes them back to where the cats are.

Once they're in with the cats, Ryou is immediately swarmed by several friendly felines. He sits down slowly, and a ginger and gray immediately push each other to crawl into his lap. It's pure heaven. He looks over to Bakari, who is standing somewhat awkwardly in the middle of the room. The cats aren't going anywhere near him.

"If you sit down," Ryou tells Bakari, "you might not seem so scary to them."

"I'm not scary," Bakari shoots back, pouting.

"But they don't know that yet," Ryou smiles. Another pout. "Hold out your hand for them to sniff. They need to get to know you, is all." Bakari shoots his hand out just a little too fast; a couple cats scatter.

"Ryou, It's not working..." He keeps his hand out.

"You have to be gentle."

"Maybe these cats need to be braver. Where are the tougher cats?"

"They've all had tough lives," Ryou says. There are now four cats cuddled up against him, vibrating like tiny little washing machines. He pets them. "They don't have a family, or a home, except here." He pets them so much. "They won't know that you're friendly if you don't show them you are." How are cats so soft? It's a miracle.

"What about that one?" Bakari asks, pointing at one of the cats.

"Oh, that old girl?" the worker replies. "She's been here for almost three weeks now. Doesn't get along with the others very well, unfortunately. We've got enough space for her now, but..."

The cat, frankly, looks like it came out the wrong end of a tornado. It's thin and scraggly, its ears frayed along the edges, one eye scarred shut, the other emerald-green and glaring at everything in a distinctly suspicious demeanor.

"She's beautiful." Bakari is staring back at her in awe. "I'm gonna pet her." He plops down cross-legged in front of the cat, one hand on his knee, the other outstretched towards the cat. The cat stares at his hand. The hand doesn't move.

The cat sniffs Bakari's hand, then bumps its head up like it wants to be skritched. Bakri skritches behind its ears.

"Ryou, she likes me."

"See, it worked out," Ryou says. "You just needed to have some patience, was all."

"I'll come back for you boys in a bit," the worker says, then leaves.

~*~*~*~*~

"Ryou, we have to keep her," Bakari says.

"You want to take her home?"

"We _have_ to. We were meant to be."

"I don't know..." Ryou hedges. "Visiting is one thing, but taking care of a cat is a lot of work, isn't it?"

"But we match." Bakari holds the cat, showing off their twin facial scars. He pouts. The cat stares with one emerald eye.

Ryou contemplates the scene before him.

"Ryou. Ryou. We can name her... Dark Nekofear."

...Dammit, that's a good name. It's a _perfect_ name.

"Okay," Ryou says. "Let me go figure out what we have to sign."

~*~*~*~*~

Dark Nekofear is mostly settled in by the time Ryou has everybody over for a Games-and-Bad-Movies-Night. She has food and water bowls, a scratching post, a ball with a little bell inside, and this feather-duster-fishing-rod-thing. She also has a little cat bed, though she uses it only to hoard her toys and any stray bottle-caps she finds in favor of sleeping at the foot of Bakari's bed. Ryou gets along with her well enough, whether it's actual petting-hand-to-cat-fur contact or her just staring at him from the other side of the room. All the tabletop miniatures and dice are safely locked up, anyway, now that the house is mostly cat-proofed, so she can't try to eat a D20 or something.

She's really Bakari's cat at heart, though, which Bakari doesn't hesitate to boast about to the others. He refuses to call them their friends, despite Ryou's gentle prodding.

"My therapist said that bonding with an animal can increase stability and healthy emotional interaction," he says, lounging on the couch. Nekofear is sitting on his lap, washing her paws. She doesn't look quite so underfed anymore, now that she has both Ryou and Bakari pampering her, and her scraggliness is slowly turning into sleekness. She won't get her eye or the chunks of her ears back, but she seems like she's been used to that for some time, now.

"I'm pretty sure most people don't brag about going to a therapist," Jounouchi-kun says, frowning from the game table where he, Mokuba-kun, and Honda-kun are losing to Ryou and Yugi-kun at tonight's latest game.

"I've been more than the Pharaoh has, and that's all that matters," Bakari replies. Yugi-kun sighs in a bit of a put-upon manner, but doesn't say anything. He rolls and moves his pieces towards Mokuba-kun's. Mokuba-kun grimaces and looks at his cards.

"Nii-sama says that therapists are a waste of time and money," Mokuba-kun says, his gaze still darting from his cards to the board.

"Stalling won't help you," Ryou comments. Mokuba-kun whispers something in Honda-kun's ear. Honda-kun shakes his head. Mokuba-kun looks at his cards again.

Ryou takes this opportunity to look over at Yugi-kun, who is currently looking back at him, still put-upon. From his last discussion with Yugi-kun after Atem left on his I'm-Not-Dead-Anymore world tour, his sentiments were more like Kaiba-kun's than Bakari's. Ryou shrugs.

"I just really like cats," Ryou says. Yugi-kun seems to accept this. Ryou thinks he's just glad that no one's trying to kill each other anymore, which is, to be fair, a good thing. Mokuba-kun winces and moves his piece. "Oh, is it my turn?"

"Don't rub it in," Mokuba-kun grouses.

"Sorry," Ryou smiles.

"Dogs are much better than cats," Honda-kun says, while Ryou is taking his turn. "You can take them on walks and teach them tricks."

"I could take Dark Nekofear on a walk," Bakari says. “Cats are smarter than dogs, anyway.”

"You can't take a cat on a walk," Honda-kun insists.

"I bet I can," Bakari says.

~*~*~*~*~

Walking a cat, Ryou discovers, is harder than it looks. He takes turns with Bakari consulting the internet and trying to introduce Nekofear to her walking harness. She hisses at him from on top of the fridge when Ryou first tries, she turns up her nose and sleeps in Ryou's room for two days when Bakari first tries, she somehow keeps knocking it from its jacket hook and hiding it under the couch _again_. Plying her with treats only works about half the time.

"Slow progress is better than nothing, isn't it?" Bakari says.

"I suppose," Ryou replies slowly. "But it's going to take a while before we can bring her outside. I think Honda-kun might end up winning the bet."

"No," Bakari says, "We just have to convince Nekofear into letting her guard down. There's got to be a strategy we haven't tried yet."

"Hmm..." Every trap card did have its use, after all. "Hmmmmm..." They just had to find the right bait so it could be sprung. Bait... "Oh!"

"Do you have an idea?" Bakari asks.

"Yes," Ryou replies.

~*~*~*~*~

In the end, they just give her a lot of catnip and wait until she's nearly boneless to put the harness on her. Then, they leave her in it until she realizes that it's on her and tries to wiggle out of it. They do this for another week, slowly weaning her down, until it just becomes a thing she wears for part of the day.

"I think she's ready," Bakari says, after that week is over.

"Are you sure?" Ryou asks.

"Mostly," Bakari grins, "but the deadline is the day after tomorrow, isn't it? So we have to try."

"But what if she panics once she's out of the apartment?" Ryou asks. "What if there's a really big dog?"

"She used to be a stray, and she's obviously won a lot of fights. She'll be fine outside."

"What if there's a _car?_ "

"Ryou," Bakari says, taking Ryou's hands in his own. "It'll be fine." Ryou hadn't noticed how much his hands had been fidgeting until they were stopped. "Nothing is going to happen. We're going to make sure she's okay."

"Okay," Ryou says.

"I'll get the leash, and you make sure everyone on Snapchat sees our victory, okay?"

"Right!"

~*~*~*~*~

It works, for a while.

The first ten minutes, they just kind of let Nekofear do her own thing, with her leading them around more than them walking her anywhere. She really seems to like being outside and sniffing plants and things, even if she staunchly refuses to let anyone but Bakari be on the side with her bad eye. She isn't even too unsettled by a nearby dog, so long as it stays on the other side of the street.

In any case, Ryou takes a picture whenever the mood either strikes him or Bakari prompts him. He also tries to smooth Bakari's gloating into something a little less rude, though judging by Honda-kun's responses, everyone knows what Bakari really said anyway. Bakari keeps telling him that adding more emojis will solve this problem. Ryou knows better, but at least Mokuba-kun and Yugi-kun are supportive.

Then, Nekofear sees a lizard and all hell breaks loose. The lizard tries to run away, Nekofear yanks herself and her leash out of Bakari's hands, and Bakari goes chasing after them. The lizard escapes into a bush, Nekofear shooting in after it. By the time Bakari digs her out of the bush, she has the lizard's bloody tail in her mouth.

"Ok, this one you gotta put on video," Bakari says. "I'll narrate." Ryou hits record. "Is it on?" Ryou gives him a thumbs-up. "Alright, listen up, everybody. The best cat in the world and everybody's favorite hunter was on the prowl in the jungles of Domino just now, and not only did she spot a tasty morsel of prey, she pursued it and brought back _this!_ It's a tail! Zoom in on the tail, Ryou." Ryou zooms in on Nekofear and the tail in her mouth. "And if that's not the most incredible thing you've seen this week, then tune in next time for the wonderful world of Dark Nekofear, who is better than you. Ok, I'm done; you can send that off."

"I think that's enough walking for one day," Ryou says, sending the video off. Bakari cuddles Nekofear for another moment, apparently undecided still. "You proved your point, I think."

"...Alright," Bakari says, putting Nekofear back on the ground. "Let's g-"

Nekofear suddenly jumps and runs off again. In the time it takes to blink, a much larger dog than the previous dog runs by, chasing after her. Ryou and Bakari book it after them, Bakari cursing a blue streak, the dog's owner trailing behind.

They find her up a tree, hissing down at some poor lady's shiba. Bakari tries shooing the dog away, with little success. Ryou takes a picture. The lady finally catches up to them and tuts at them about responsibility before dragging her dog away.

"Like she didn't completely lose control of her own animal," Bakari complains. "I hope she steps in its poo."

"It wasn't that bad," Ryou replies, getting another shot of Nekofear in the tree, looking down at them in feline aloofness. "I really do think we ought to head home now, though."

"Yeah, yeah," Bakari says, reaching up to pull Nekofear down. "Come on, let's go."

Nekofear remains where she is. Bakari reaches again.

"...I can't reach her," he frowns. "Come on, Nekofear. Just jump down." Nekofear stays where she is, still staring. "Ryou, you try."

"Ok," Ryou says, shoving his phone in his pocket. "Hey, there. It's time to go home, now."

Nekofear doesn't move. Ryou realizes that her expression is not one of aloofness but of fear.

"I don't think she can get down," Ryou says. He tries reaching for her, but he can't make it up to the branch she's on, either. He resists the urge to bite his nails.

"Well, shit," Bakari says.

"Yeah," Ryou agrees.

"What do we do?"

"I don't know..."

"What if I climbed on your shoulders?" They try. It works for about ten seconds, until Ryou's knees start to buckle and they collapse against the tree trunk. They go back to trying to cajole Nekofear into jumping down into their arms. She refuses.

"This isn't working..." Ryou says. Nekofear is starting to meow despondently. "It's going to get dark soon. I don't know if we have to call somebody to come get her down, or who we would even contact for that to-"

A car screeches to a halt at the curb behind them. Ryou whips his head around to see Seto and Mokuba Kaiba getting out of a Blue-Eyes-White-Dragon-themed sports car.

"I thought you might need our help," Mokuba-kun says, grinning with his hands on his hips.

"Do you have a ladder?" Bakari asks, leaning back against the tree.

"We don't need a ladder," Mokuba-kun replies. "We have something better." Did they bring the jetpack? Ryou takes his phone out again, just in case.

"Mokuba. You ready?" Kaiba-kun says, walking up to the tree, casually pushing Bakari out of the way.

"Hey," Bakari retorts, moving to sulk behind Ryou.

"Ready!" Mokuba-kun says, running towards him. Kaiba-kun braces his hands, catching his little brother's foot and launching him upwards, holding him there with his other hand stabilizing his leg. Mokuba grabs onto the tree branch with one hand and reaches for Nekofear with the other. Nekofear clings. "Got her!"

"Coming down," Kaiba-kun says. He pushes Mokuba-kun into the air, catches both him and Nekofear in his arms, and then gently puts them back on the ground.

"Cat rescue complete!" Mokuba-kun grins, handing Nekofear to Bakari.

"How philanthropic," Bakari says, though he's cuddling Nekofear awfully hard for it to be intimidating. Ryou elbows him.

"Thank you, Kaiba-kun, Mokuba-kun," he says. "I hope you didn't go out of your way too much for us."

"It's _not_ philanthropic," Kaiba-kun insists. "I just want you two to stop blowing up my phone. It's annoying."

"Oh, I didn't realize," Ryou says, blinking as innocently as he can while surreptitiously hitting the send button on the Kaiba-brothers-acrobatic-extravaganza photos.

"You're welcome," Mokuba-kun winks.

"We're done," Kaiba-kun says, turning on his heel and getting back into the sports car.

"Bye!" Mokuba-kun waves, following his brother into the car. And then they're off.

"I swear Kaiba has something stuck up his ass," Bakari grumbles into Nekofear's fur. "Like a spare Millennium Rod, or the Phao-"

"Let's just go home," Ryou says. "I think we've had enough excitement for one afternoon."

"Okay, okay. I'm behaving." He cuddles Nekofear a little more.

"Maybe we can have some tea when we get home, hm?"

"That sounds nice."

~*~*~*~*~

Once they're home, they take Nekofear out of her harness. She immediately dashes under the couch. Ryou gets the tea water going. Bakari drapes himself on top of the couch and flips channels on the tv until he finds a suitably ridiculous reality show. A few minutes later, they've both got tea and are cuddled under a blanket. Every once in a while, a paw emerges from the darkness to bat at Ryou's pant leg.

"I really don't understand why you like this show," Ryou says. "Can't we switch it back to the dueling channel?"

"It's just a repeat from last year's KC Cup Finals," Bakari says. "I mean, I enjoyed watching Kujaku wipe the floor with Roba the last two times I saw it, but it's still a repeat, you know? This, on the other hand, is comedy gold." On the screen, a man is desperately sauteeing something while standing in a ball pit. He's crying. "Chef Ken here has only five minutes left, and he hasn't even started plating yet." He leans forward to look at the single black paw sticking out from under the couch. "Isn't that right, Nekofear? He hasn't even started plating yet. At this rate, Chef Yosuke will easily beat him to continue to the next round." The darkness under the couch meows. "I agree completely." He leans back into the couch. "Did you hear that, Ryou? She says it's the thrill of the competition."

"Only the competition?" Ryou teases. "Not the part where everybody runs around in a panic at the last second?" Bakari laughs. "Mmhmm."

"Smartass," Bakari says. They lull into silence and drink tea for a while.

"You know," Ryou says, after a bit, "I've been thinking about entering in this year's KC Cup."

"With the usual deck?"

"Well, I'm gonna keep some of my favorites," Ryou continues, "but I haven't really done a major overhaul in a while. I was thinking it would be a good opportunity to try some new strategies." There are a few new fiend cards he's had his eye on lately, in particular. If he manages to get those, and then combine them with that spell card he got last week, he's sure he'll have an unstoppable combo.

"There's also the fact that we can't really have game night if everyone's busy with a tournament," Bakari says.

"Smartass," Ryou shoots back.

"I'm gonna stick to cheering this time," Bakari says. "Might change my mind later, but probably not." That probably means he'll only compete if Atem does. Ryou figures the chances of that are pretty slim, given discussions he's had with Yugi-kun about minimizing confusion on the public dueling circuit. Bakari and Atem might actually look Egyptian now, but signature cards are signature cards. Hmm, maybe if someone hosted some more private games... "Plus, I don't wanna argue with you about who gets to use Dark Necrofear."

There's a disgruntled meow from under the couch.

"Oh, not you," Ryou says, putting his empty tea mug down and reaching to extract the cat. She curls up on his lap, and Ryou provides the requisite petting. "We would never argue about you because you're perfect." There's a much more satisfied meow.

"Purr-fect," Bakari echoes, joining in the petting. Ryou elbows him playfully.

"That was terrible," he complains.

"No, you know what's terrible?" Bakari replies. "The fact that you haven't started training for the new tournament yet. If you've got a whole new strategy, you gotta practice. I'm assuming if you're really rehauling your deck that you have a new strategy planned?"

"I have several, actually," Ryou says, "But I need a couple more cards before I can finish one of the combos I really want to build."

"We'll go to the shop on your next day off, then," Bakari says, "And we'll just keep opening packs until you get the cards you need."

"That sounds expensive."

"I'll do an extra shift at the 7-Eleven. Or we can five fi-"

" _No_."

"Okay, definitely extra shift, then. And I'll help you practice since I'm not competing; you definitely don't want the others to even _suspect_ what your new deck is like. Not even Jounouchi, no matter how hilarious his reaction would be."

"I wasn't going to tell anyone," Ryou says, pouting. "I do want to win, after all."

"Good, good. I'll throw a couple decks together with the cards you don't end up using, so you can get a good variety of challenges. And we can do a couple of stacked rounds to see how much you can bounce back if you don't get the card you need right away."

"You're going to bottom-deck me?" Ryou asks. "Isn't that a bit much?"

"So when you go to the tournament, you can be ready for anything," Bakari answers. "And when you get there, you are going to clean the fuck up." He smacks his first into his palm, grinning.

Dark Nekofear meows and pulls his arm back with her paws.

"Skritches first," Ryou laughs.

"You're absolutely right," Bakari says. "It's the most impurrtant part of purr-actice." The best cat in the world closes her eye contentedly and rumbles her agreement.

**Author's Note:**

> Bakari is an Egyptian/African name meaning "promising".


End file.
